Meanwhile, Steve Bannon Is Reminding Everyone That the Right Is Very Much Trying to Destroy Democracy

Steve Bannon was criminally charged on Friday for defying a subpoena issued by the House committee investigating Jan. 6. The charges were announced not long after Bannon very emphatically reminded listeners of his War Room podcast that the he and the right are trying to do away with democracy by “taking over elections” and overturning Trump’s loss last November.

“We’re taking action. We’re taking over school boards. We’re taking over the Republican Party with the precinct committee strategy. We’re taking over all the elections,” Bannon said.

“Suck on this!” he added. “Ninety-five percent of the ballots in Virginia were occupied with election officials and poll watchers and that is a principle reason we secured the election of Youngkin. They know it. They’re there to have a free and fair count. We’re going to continue that and get to the bottom of 3 November and we’re going to decertify the electors and you’re going to have a constitutional crisis.

Steve Bannon: "We're taking over all the elections" pic.twitter.com/Sh2KN5phYM — Media Matters (@mmfa) November 12, 2021

Don’t worry, though. Bannon took the time to comfort his listeners. Everything will be totally fine, he said. Just trust him as he walks the nation off a constitutional cliff. “But you know what?” Bannon said. “We’re a big and tough country, and we can handle that, we’ll be able to handle that. We’ll get through that.”

Bannon is currently engaged in a battle with the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. He has refused to comply with a subpoena from the committee, following Trump’s direction to claim his communications with the president were protected by executive privilege. It’s an odd claim considering that Bannon was not working in the federal government at the time of the insurrection and that Trump is no longer being president. Bannon even failed to show up to give testimony before the committee in response to the subpoena.

Bannon’s refusal led the committee to hold him in contempt. The House of Representatives then voted to approve the measure, sending it to the Justice Department. On Friday, the Justice Department announced that a federal grand jury indicted him on two counts of contempt of Congress.